Organization, the ultimate goal of architecture, is essential to coherent design.  Architecture strives for some factor that defines its conception.  Design decisions based upon an organizing principle are always stronger and easier to comprehend.

     So all this organizing is meant to achieve what?  Space, but what is that?  This word is thrown around by architects all the time, and is rarely explained in school.  Space is the sum of the experience of being at a location, based upon the organization of materials on hand.  Corbusier would say that space is about axes and how light plays off the surfaces of forms.  Both of these are incredibly important, the axis helps to understand what is being experienced and when.  An example once again from Corbusier “ Architectural buildings should not all be placed upon axes, for this would be like so many people talking at once”. 

      Another example of axis is Eisenmann’s House VI.  In this house, the axises become tools in the form making process.  The house is divided into quadrants which are further divided by intersections of marking from a set of rules, this creates new divisions.  As a tool, these intersecting zones and quadrants become very interesting when introduced in section.  House VI is an excellent example of using the axes to create interesting space without forgetting the human scale.  Its very easy for the architect to lose perspective and forget that the reason for the axis is not only for the architects organizing principles, but also for the occupants to better understand the boundaries created by the architect.

 So it really isn’t the axis that is the key, but the new boundaries that are perceived.  Space then by that definition is a boundary that the human mind can distinguish. 

-Image of City from ShiftOperations